Orphans of Apollo - S2 E1
24th March 2020
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As he took a right turn onto Church Road, Damian’s pace quickened, only about half a kilometre left to go. He glanced down at his watch. This would make it a ten kilometre run. He breathed the spring air deeply into his lungs, it felt good, still plenty in the tank. Another couple of kilometres would be easy, if he wanted to do them. Not bad going, considering a few months ago any more than five kilometres would have been a real stretch.
Since he had moved back to his parents’ house in Willington just outside Bedford, Damian Osbourne had been running more and more, steadily increasing his distances. It helped to clear his mind. When he left Newcastle University he wasn’t unfit, but had been so busy with his research he had not been able to keep in the shape he had wanted to. That was all behind him now. For better or worse, it was over, he was out. What he was going to do with himself now was the question. When he announced he would not be going back after the Christmas break, his parents had been shocked and perhaps a little angry. The decision to quit his PhD shocked them but he was only a year or so into it, so not a huge loss. He still had his degree in Biomedical Genetics, so his time at Newcastle University had not been wasted. Once they had come to terms with his decision, they had been supportive of him taking some time out to figure out what he wanted to do.
The last few months had been very introspective. Had he made the right decision? Morally it was the only one he felt he could make. He had now made his peace with it.
Now though, things were getting more and more surreal. What had started as background noise in the media of a virus spreading in Wuhan, China, had now grown into a global pandemic reminiscent of a Hollywood movie. Damian was not even sure now if he wanted to continue with a career in medicine, but now he couldn’t get away from it. His father started to try and nudge him back in that direction. The world needed people like him now, to help fight the pandemic. There were lots of good well-paying jobs in medical research, surely he could find something that interested him. What had gone so badly wrong that he was thinking of changing careers completely? The initial support had given way to a mounting tension and Damian found his runs relieved stress and gave him an opportunity to get out the house.
The road narrowed and the footpath disappeared, he jinked into the middle to avoid the parked cars. The narrow roads of Willington, like many English villages, were not designed to cater for the number of cars the residents now owned. One last burst of pace and he slowed to a jog and then a walk. He approached the driveway of his parents’ house. The garden was neat and well kept. Built in the 1970s, the beige brick house was starting to show its age, but it had not yet reached a point where that became an endearing characteristic, as with the older buildings in the village. Damian stopped just outside the front door. Before doing his stretches, he pulled his phone from the armband securing it to his right arm and noticed he had a message.
GOV.UK CORONAVIRUS ALERT. New rules in force now: you must stay at home. More info and exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.
Neglecting his stretches, he opened the front door. The stairs were just inside the door and he was about to make his way up when his mum called out from the living room.
“Damian, is that you? Have you seen this message?”
“Looks like they are finally putting us into some sort of lockdown,” his father’s voice called out.
His parents were sitting soaking up the warm early spring sunshine in their south-facing living room. The TV was on in the corner playing BBC News 24. His father looked up from his morning ritual of news websites on his tablet.
“Good run?” his father asked.
“Yes, thanks Dad.”
“What’s on the agenda for the rest of the day then?” His mum shifted her gaze from the TV to Damian’s father. “You know plenty of companies are still recruiting online. The whole world has not come to a halt. Well, at least not yet anyway,” his father continued.
“I know that Dad.”
“You are going to have to find something sooner or later. Or at least use this time productively. Start studying something.”
Damian sighed under his breath and fought back the urge to argue.
“Have you thought anymore about what you might want to do?” his mother ventured.
“I want to find something where I feel I’m making a real difference.”
“You studied genetics at university for God’s sake. The world is crying out for people with just your expertise to help find a cure to this bloody virus. Surely you can find something!”
“Dad, I’ve told you, it’s not a field I want to be involved with anymore.”
“Because they did an experiment you did not agree with. Sometimes we all have to do things we don’t entirely agree with son. It’s called real life.”
“Honey,” his mum shot his dad a cautionary glance.
“You still haven’t told us exactly what was going on that you didn’t agree with anyway,” she said.
“It’s probably best you don’t know.”
“Well, one thing I do know, son, is that you’ve wallowed in self-pity for too long. You need to sort your life out. I never thought I would be saying this to you as an adult, but this evening I want you to be able to tell me what concrete action you have taken in getting yourself sorted. Otherwise, you are going to become one of those sad young men that hide themselves away in their bedroom and spend all day online doing who knows what. That is not happening in this house, that’s for sure.” His father got up and walked to the door. “I’ll be in the study on a Zoom call with the office, so don’t disturb me until lunchtime. Some of us have got work to do.”
His mother propped her head up on her hand, elbow resting on the arm of the sofa. She smiled a warm, knowing smile. Damian looked at her and then glanced out of the window. He waited long enough for his father to deposit his empty coffee cup in the kitchen and make his way out to the study, then he glanced at his mum, and without saying anything headed upstairs to take a shower.
Damian pulled a t-shirt over his head; his still wet hair dampened it so it stuck to his back in places. He picked the towel off his bed and scrubbed the almost shoulder-length jet black hair, then threw the towel back on the bed. Running his fingers through the still damp hair to straighten it, he pulled out the office chair from the desk in the corner of his modest bedroom. A room which had been his for as long as he could remember. With a casual shake of the wrist, he moved the mouse to wake the laptop open on his desk. His email inbox was still open. One new message since he went for a shower, it was from a recruitment agency he had sent his details through to a few days ago. Damian scanned the first few lines. They were very interested in talking to him and had high hopes they could find him a job in medical research, especially considering the environment we are in now. His skills were just what was required, and they could probably secure a great starting package, as they would have multiple employers vying for his skills. He closed the window.
Behind his email, Twitter was open. He began scrolling. After a minute, something caught his attention. A suggested tweet from an account the Twitter algorithm thought would be of interest to him.
True Genesis @TrueGenesis1996
Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds - Robert Oppenheimer. What do geneticists say when they witness their creations?
What is this? He clicked on the logo, a double helix split at the top to form a “T” - if you used your imagination. It opened up the profile page of the account:
True Genesis @TrueGenesis1996
The human race is sleepwalking into an ability to perform eugenics on a scale and with precision never before possible. Only the True Genesis can be allowed to prevail.
Damian followed the account and tweeted a reply.
Damian Osbourne @damosbourne
@TrueGenesis1996 They do not appreciate that what they have created can be so destructive, whereas this was pretty obvious to Oppenheimer when he witnessed the Trinity test.
He continued to scroll, his mind preoccupied, not really reading the tweets as they slid up the screen. What was this True Genesis account and what was it really about? A notification ping broke his concentration. It was a message from Isaac Underwood:
Hey Damo, it’s been a while, how’s things?
I’m ok.
Are you still at your parents?
Yes.
We are making great progress here. Ling is just amazing.
Another ping. It was a response to his tweet:
True Genesis @TrueGenesis1996
@damosbourne Of course they know the potential power of what they are creating, in just the same way those working on the Manhattan Project did.
Damian Osbourne @damosbourne
@TrueGenesis1996 They are well-intentioned and perhaps a little naive to the potential misuse of their creations. Unlike those who worked on the Manhattan Project.
A ping from WhatsApp:
She really is talented Damo. The Chinese must be making some real progress on this also, given the insights she has provided.
Damian ignored the message and went back to Twitter.
True Genesis @TrueGenesis1996
@damosbourne It sounds like you have some personal experience?
Damian Osbourne @damosbourne
@TrueGenesis1996 DM me.
WhatsApp again:
Damo, you still there?
Good for you.
I’m not coming back. If that’s what you are going to ask.
You need to fully understand how these techniques
could be misused in the wrong hands.If we don’t do this someone else in another lab will do.
Like in China?
Isn’t that the equivalent of saying I was just following
orders?That’s being a bit harsh isn’t it.
I don’t think so.
A direct message came in from True Genesis on Twitter:
Damian it sounds like you have some experience of being involved with genetic engineering?
Yes. I once was.
What happened?
I became uneasy with the moral judgements of my
research partners.Good for you. What were they doing exactly?
I would rather not say at this point. I want to
understand a little about you/your organisation.Fair enough. Where are you?
I would rather not say.
Ok. At the minute, we are a loose collection of people online who strongly oppose the genetic engineering of humans. We try to inform the public on the potential dangers of this. Despite our name we are a secular organisation. We believe in the true genesis, as in how humans are now. Whether you believe we came from Adam and Eve or evolved from Apes is up to you. We simply believe in preserving the lineage as it is and not artificially changing it.
That’s very interesting.
I was studying for a PhD in genetics and became
uncomfortable with what my partners were doing. It all
started out quite legitimately but then they started to
stray into some murky moral territory.Please tell me more.
We were trying to solve a particular problem for
humanity through genetic engineering. I became
worried the techniques could be applied more widely
and unscrupulously by others if they got hold of them.So did you discuss this with your research partners?
Yes, but they would not take me seriously. They were so
focused on what they wanted to achieve.So you left?
Yes.
Damian had been ignoring the relentless pings from his chat with Isaac and switched back to it:
You agree though that humanity has to make its way in the universe?
You still there? Damo?
Don’t ignore me.
Damo?
Yes I do, and I agree that what you are doing is one way
to achieve that. But you know once the genie is out of the bottle you can’t
put it back in and you have no control over what else it
can be used for.You are being a bit melodramatic aren’t you?
I don’t care what you think. I want no part of it anymore.
So what are you going to do? Have you found a job yet?
I don’t know and no I haven’t.
We can put controls around the use of these genetic techniques.
Isaac, I am not coming back and that is final.
But you are a key part of the team.
You just said how great Ling is. You don’t need me.
We do.
Come on Issac it’s been months now. If you really
wanted me back you would have asked before now.We wanted to give you some time to clear your head.
Look we both know the reason why you are contacting
me now. You are worried I might talk about what you are
doing.Damian switched his attention back to Twitter:
And what are you doing now?
I took some time out. I needed to get away. Now I guess I
am trying to move on and find a job.So did you report your colleagues?
No
Why not?
Because they are good people and fundamentally I agree
the problem they were trying to solve needs to be solved.
I guess I had a crisis of conscience when I realised fully
how these genetic engineering techniques could be
misused.What exactly were you doing?
I would rather not say at this point.
How far along was this research?
They were starting to talk seriously about an animal
trial.Did your academic facilities ethical oversight procedures not prevent you from doing this?
We used research into human ageing and treatments for
age-related conditions as a cover.So what do think will happen?
I guess they will continue their work and hope they don’t
get caught.Do you think they should be stopped?
I guess so but I would not want them to suffer any severe
consequences. As I said they are good people.Isaac was getting impatient again:
I’ll admit that is a worry.
You weren’t planning on doing anything were you?
Damo?
Don’t worry. I don’t agree with it but I will not expose
you.Happy now?
You can go on with your research and not have to worry
about me.Don’t be like that.
Don’t be like what? I need to get on with my life now.
Good luck - I guess.Come on.
Bye Isaac.
Damian closed WhatsApp and switched back to Twitter:
Have you found a job yet?
No, to be honest I haven’t been trying that hard.
You must join us.
Where are you located?
In the US.
I had a feeling that was the case. I am in the UK, so it’s
probably a bit hard right now. I’m happy to support you
without exposing my friends.I’m going to put this out there. I think after chatting with you briefly right now you will not find fulfilment until you join us. You seem like a person of conscience. It will always weigh on you if you do not join us.
I’m not sure about that.
Take some time. Have a think about it. You know how to contact me. When you are ready, we can arrange a meeting.
If you know someone you think would enjoy “Orphans of Apollo” or any of the other writing in “Explorations” please share this publication with them.
I hope you enjoyed the first episode of season 2 of Orphans of Apollo. We are going to spend the next few weeks in the early 2020s and then jump forward a few years to the present day. This is a bit weird since I actually wrote these scenes originally a few years ago. I first started writing Orphans of Apollo just before the COVID pandemic, so the scenes set in the near future, of course, had no reference to this. Orphans of Apollo has alternate history elements to it, along with being science fiction. As I went through and edited these scenes for serialisation, I debated with myself whether I should leave out any reference to COVID and just pretend it didn’t happen - since this is fiction at the end of the day. I the end though I have included it so scenes set around our current time period of the mid 2020s are a bit more authentic. Hopefully this works.
There were some unexpected benefits to going back and including COVID. It turns out it has a very formative impact on a character we will meet in a couple of months - Kevin Valenti. But that will have to wait.
Thanks for reading,
Alex